Maitland lost one of its great sporting heroes this week when Gary ‘Bimbo’ Collins, 74, passed away.
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Collins was a fullback for the Maitland Pumpkin Pickers in their great days of the late 1960s and 70s, winning several premierships and playing in multiple grand finals.
Renowned for his massive kicks, he represented NSW Country and also NSW while a Maitland player.
Right at the end of his career he joined the Kurri Bulldogs.
Collins, who was living in Kurri, had been ill for some time and passed away in hospital.
Funeral details to be announced.
ONE MAN’S TRIBUTE
There was something magical about growing up and seeing the great Maitland rugby league teams of the 1960s and '70s.
As a kids of 10 or 11 you could go along to Maitland Sportsground, see the Pickers come down the tunnel, led out by Terry Pannowitz, ears taped back and ready for action, and know there was every chance this might be the day they put a top side to the sword. sword.
They were ridiculously strong.
And it was something a but special if it was a Coalfields derby, or if it was Wests.
Brian Burke, Merv Wright, Dick Golledge, Allan West, Mick McTernan, Bimbo Collins ...
Yes, Gary Bimbo Collins, the reason for today's article.
Bimbo passed away this week and it would be wrong to let the champion fullback go without a special mention.
Tall, and built like a stick, he was deceptively fast - I've seen him run down wingers with that long, ranging stride - and with exceptionally safe hands under the high ball (or the up-and-under as it was back then).
His tackling wasn't copybook low, but high. He'd grapple and wrestle opponents to the ground.
But it was his kicking that was special.
To this day, 50 years later, he's the best kicker of a football I've ever seen.
And these weren't the all-weather, lighter balls of today's game. These were the old leather Steedens that, when wet, were as heavy as a brick.
But when he kicked the ball, it would fly off his left boot like a missile. Massive, spiralling punts that just kept soaring. No-one else could do it like Bimbo.
As a kid I would watch open mouthed, knowing it was a thing of beauty.
Give a penalty away against Maitland at your peril. The lanky fullback would kick for touch and in a flash the Pickers were deep in your territory again.
It must have been so demoralising for opposition teams to battle their way upfield only to make a mistake and bang ... you're back on your tryline courtesy of Bimbo and that prodigious boot.
It wasn't just punts either. Kicks of all types. I don't know how many field goals I saw him kick from half way.
In his column today Brian Burke tells of the match where he kicked three field goals from half way for Country against City, and was subsequently selected for NSW.
He was a great player in a great team.
And a great loss.
Rick Allen, who started watching Collins and Co. in 1968
BRIAN BURKE’S WORDS …
The opposing fullback, and ‘immortal’, Graham Langlands, could do nothing but watch them sail over his head. On the strength of this performance the tall Maitlander was subsequently selected to play for NSW.